Poor governance and lack of state capa bilities in around 45 countries pose a threat to global security and develop ment. The involvement of the inter­ national community is required to help these states break out of their low development–high conflict traps. Recent years have seen a number of notable initiatives, including a “New Deal on Fragile States” announced in November 2011 by the g7+ and their international partners. This Policy Brief casts some light on this New Deal from the per spective of the UNU WIDER research project “Fragility and Development”.